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Mnemosyne Titaness of Memory
Lady of Remembrace and Titaness of Memory Reign Mnemosyne titaness of memory and remembrance. She is sometimes seen as the goddess of words and language as she invented them. Her memory is so great that she remembers everything since the beginning of time, making her a minor goddess of time. She is also the Eldest of the Titaness following Oceanus. Mnemosyne was the mother of the nine Muses with the King of Olympus, Zeus. 'In Loving Memory' of Mnemosyne she was a principal Titaness, daughter of Father Uranus and Mother Gaea. She had no legal husband, but had children by Zeus from whom she became the mother of the NINE muses, patronesses of the arts. Mnemosyne was a member of the divine trio quartet known as the TITAN MUSES. As daughters of King Uranus and the goddesses of music, Melete, the Muse of Practice; Aoide, the Muse of Song; Mnemosyne, the Muse of Memory Arche, the Muse of Beginning; and Thelxinoe, the Muse of Charm. As a titan goddess, Mnemosyne possessed great powers in the strength of her voice, enabling her to create sonic effects to shatter glass or to hypnotize others with a word Just at the dawn of Cronus' reign, Her Being Uranus' favorite daughter, Mnemosyne was so affected by her father's Exile that she did not readily accept the position in the Titan Council offered to her by Cronus. Her office was filled in by the Oceanid Dione until the time the goddess was ready. A Goddess to Remember Mnemosyne was the goddess of memory and remembrance, and the inventress of language and words. She was given responsibility for the naming of all objects, and by doing so gave humans the means to dialog and to converse with each other. The powers to place things in memory an that of remembrance were also attributed to this goddess. You see, Mnemosyne is a very important goddess, so to speak, especially in the ancient times when writing and literacy had not yet been invented. She represented the rote memorization required to preserve the stories of history and sagas of myth. She embodied an oral culture that communicated the soul through their stories and metaphors. Back then, it was critical to the well-being of an individual or a society who had to rely solely on the lessons passed on in an oral history. kings and poets receive their powers of authoritative speech from their possession of Mnemosyne. After Zeus led the war against the Titans and established himself as the leader of the Olympians, he feared that, even though he might be immortal, his great victories and decisions might soon be forgotten. Longing for a way to preserve the memory of his many great feats, he dressed as a shepherd and went to find Mnemosyne. They slept together for nine nights before he returned to his home on Mount Olympus. Zeus got his wish. Mnemosyne gave birth for nine days, each day delivering a daughter. Collectively they were known as the Muses and were described as "having one mind, their hearts set upon song and their spirit free from care". No banquet on Mount Olympus was complete without them. Seated near the throne of their father, they entertained the guests, singing not only of the greatness of Zeus, but about the marvelous feats of the Greek heroes and the creation of the heavens and the earth and all its wondrous creatures. And thus, Mnemosyne became the Mistress of the Arts, and the number 9 became her sacred number. The convenience that is Greek mythology. Tsk. Tsk. She later became a minor oracular goddess in the oracle of Trophonius at Lebadeia; Also, a minor Underworld and river goddess Mnemosyne presided over the Pool of Memory in Hades, counterpart to the River of Oblivion, Lethe. when one died and crossed into the Underworld one would be given a choice . . . whether to drink from the river Lethe where you would forget all the pains and terrors of your previous life (and with them, the lessons they brought), or whether to drink from the Mnemosyne, the spring of memory. Those who chose to forget had to be reborn, to return to earth to learn the lessons they needed. Those who had chosen to remember were admitted to the Elysian Fields where they would spend eternity in comfort and peace. Children The Muses are the Olympian goddesses of music song and inspiration, and daughters of Zeus, Ruler of the Olympian Gods, and Mnemosyne, a Titaness and goddess of memory. Predisposed to music, song and entertainment, they spent most of their time entertaining the Olympian gods, but also to serving as sources of inspiration to mortal man. They often served as judges and inflicted punishments on those who abused their talents, The Muses possess the conventional physical attributes of the Olympian gods. Like all Olympians, they are immortal: they have not aged since reaching adulthood and cannot die by any conventional means. They are immune to all Earthly diseases and are resistant to conventional injury. If somehow wounded, their godly life force would enable them to recover with superhuman speed. It would take an injury of such magnitude that it dispersed a major portion of their bodily molecules to cause them a physical death. Even then, it might be possible for a god of significant power, such as Zeus or Poseidon or for a number of Olympian gods working together to revive them. They also possess superhuman strength (a typical Olympian goddess can lift (press) 25 tons) and their Olympian metabolism provides them with far greater than human endurance in all physical activities. (Olympian flesh and bone is about three times as dense as similar human tissue, contributing to the Olympians' superhuman strength and weight.) Each of the Muses also has a capacity for tapping and manipulating magical energies. Calliope, as the eldest of the Muses and their leader, can conjure spheres of light and mystical force, and Urania can manipulate psychokinetic fields to cause probable but not improbable events to occur. They can travel through dimensions, such as from Earth to Olympus, alter their forms and that of other beings and objects (such as when they turned the daughters of Pierus into birds) and inflict curses upon mortals ranging from blindness to an inability to speak. They had clairvoyant and precognitive abilities akin to prophesy; they could sense beings of literary, artistic and musical potential and appear to them for guidance. They were extra-ordinarily graceful and could fly at will, even materializing wings at will to fly at atmospheric heights. The Muses judged the contest between Apollo and Marsyas. They also gathered the pieces of the dead body of Orpheus, son of Calliope, and buried him. They blinded Thamyris for his hubris in challenging them to a contest. The Muses are also the companions of the god Apollo. There are nine Muses: Calliope, Muse of Epic Poetry Clio, Muse of History Erato, Muse of Love Poetry Euterpe, Muse of Music Melpomene, Muse of Tragedy Polyhymnia, Muse of Sacred Poetry Terpsichore, Muse of Dance and Epic Poetry Thalia, Muse of Comedy, Urania, Muse of Astronomy The Muses Calliope was the lover of the war god Ares, and bore him several sons. Calliope also had two famous sons, Orpheus and Linus, by Apollo. She taught Orpheus many verses for singing. She married Oeagrus close to Pimpleia, Olympus. Clio's name was derived from the Greek word kleo, "to make famous" or "celebrate." In Classical times, when the Mousai were assigned specific literary and artistic spheres, Clio was named Muse of history. She has been credited with introducing the Pheonican alphabet into Greece. Her son, Hyacinth, was a lover of Apollo. Euterpe is called the "giver of delight," and she is the Muse of Music and Lyric Poetry. She is also the Muse of joy and pleasure. A few say she invented the aulos or double-flute, which is her attribute. The river god Strymon impregnated Euterpe; her son Rhesus led a band of Thracians and was. Melpomene was initially the Muse of singing, she then became known as the Muse of Tragedy, for which she is best known. Her name was derived from the Greek verb melpô or melpomai meaning "to celebrate with dance and song., it was traditional to invoke the goddess Melpomene so that one might create beautiful lyrical phrases. Terpsichore is the Muse of choral songs and dance, her name meaning delight of dancing. Sometime she is said to be the mother of the Sirens by Achelous. Thalia's name means 'flourishing' because of the praises in her songs flourish through time. She was the daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne, the eighth-born of the nine Muses. According to pseudo-Apollodorus, she and Apollo were the parents of the Corybantes. Urania was the last of the Muses to be born and took on the role of the Muse of Astronomy. Her name means heavenly or of heaven.